Compress Image
Shrink JPG, PNG and WEBP file size.
How to use Compress Image
Add one or more images (JPG, PNG or WEBP).
Choose the quality level — 80% is a good balance for photos.
Click Compress and compare the size before and after.
Download each image, or all of them as a ZIP.
Where image weight actually comes from
A phone photo is 12 megapixels and 4-8 MB. Displayed in an 800-pixel-wide column on a web page, well over 90% of those pixels are thrown away by the browser after being downloaded — the visitor paid for every one of them in load time and mobile data.
So the biggest saving is almost never the compression setting. It is the dimensions. Resizing a 4000-pixel-wide photo to the 1600 pixels it will actually be displayed at removes 84% of the data before compression does anything at all. Resize first, then compress; doing only the second is leaving most of the win on the table.
How much compression is enough
For the web, aim for photographs under 200 KB and, ideally, a whole page under 1 MB. Those are not arbitrary: they are roughly what loads in a couple of seconds on the mobile connections a large share of your visitors are actually on.
- Hero and full-width images: 1600-2000 px wide, 150-300 KB.
- In-article images: 800-1200 px wide, under 150 KB.
- Thumbnails: 300-400 px wide, under 30 KB.
- Email attachments: under 1 MB each, and be aware many servers cap the total at 25 MB.
Recognising over-compression
Compression artefacts appear in predictable places, and once you can see them you cannot unsee them. Look at areas of smooth gradient — sky, skin, a plain wall — where you will find banding, patchy blotches or a faint grid of 8×8 blocks. Look along high-contrast edges for a ghostly halo. And watch saturated reds, which fall apart before anything else because JPEG stores colour at half resolution.
Check at 100% zoom on the largest screen the image will be seen on, not on your phone. What looks fine at thumbnail size can be visibly broken on a desktop monitor.
Choosing the right format
Format choice often beats compression settings outright. WEBP delivers files 25-35% smaller than JPG at matching visual quality and is supported by every browser in current use — for the web, it is simply the better default. AVIF goes further still, around 50% smaller, with slightly narrower support and slower encoding.
Stay with JPG when the destination is not a browser: email clients, print workflows, older desktop software and many upload forms are still safest with JPG.
Every step runs inside your browser, using the WebAssembly and Canvas APIs your device already ships with. No file is uploaded, no copy is kept, and nothing sits in a queue on a server waiting to be deleted — which is also why the tool keeps working with the network disconnected.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will compression make my photos look worse?
At 75–85% quality the difference is usually invisible while the file gets several times smaller. Lower values save more space but may introduce visible artifacts.
Does PNG compression work the same way?
PNG is lossless, so quality settings have little effect. For big savings on photos stored as PNG, convert them to JPG or WEBP instead.
Are my photos uploaded to a server?
No. Compression happens locally in your browser.
How do I compress an image without losing quality?
Truly lossless compression saves only 5-20%. What people usually want is compression with no *visible* loss, which is quality 80-85 for JPG or WEBP — typically 60-80% smaller and indistinguishable side by side. Resizing to the dimensions actually needed saves far more than either.
How do I get an image under 100 KB?
Reduce the dimensions first: 800-1000 px wide is plenty for most uses and does most of the work. Then compress at quality 75-80. Reaching 100 KB from a 4000 px photo by compression alone would destroy it.
Does compressing repeatedly make it worse?
Yes, for lossy formats. Every save re-compresses an already-compressed image and the damage accumulates. Always compress from the original, never from a compressed copy.
Is the EXIF metadata removed?
Yes, and that is usually what you want. It strips a few kilobytes per file and, more importantly, removes the GPS coordinates phones embed in photos — publishing an untouched phone photo can publish your home address with it.
Should I use JPG, WEBP or AVIF?
WEBP for the web: 25-35% smaller than JPG at the same visual quality, universally supported. AVIF if you want maximum saving and control the delivery. JPG when the destination is email, print or older software.
Can I compress many images at once?
Yes, up to 20 at a time, with a ZIP download. Because everything runs locally, a batch is limited by your device rather than by an upload queue.
Related tools
Keep reading
- How to Get a PDF Under 2 MB (Without Ruining It)
Why upload forms cap you at 2 MB, why compression alone often fails, and the order of operations that actually gets a scanned document under the limit.
- JPG, PNG, WEBP or AVIF: How to Actually Choose
A decision you make dozens of times a week, usually by habit. Here is the rule that gets it right, and what each format costs you when you get it wrong.
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